Swiss Info

Demonstrations and processions denouncing police violence and racism took place in several Swiss cities on Saturday, including a 5,000-strong gathering in Basel. Demonstrators in the northwest city carried posters bearing slogans such as “Black li...

This year’s edition of the world’s biggest art fair, initially rescheduled until September due to the Covid-19 pandemic, has now been cancelled altogether. “We had hoped to contribute to the recovery of the art market through a successful fair...

Geneva’s famous “jet d’eau” is to start up again next Thursday, after being shut down since March 20 to protect its maintenance workers from Covid-19. The shutdown was also meant to “incarnate” the authorities’ health recommendations...

Swiss prosecutors have opened an investigation into a suspected money laundering scandal involving loans to state-owned companies in Mozambique which plunged the southern African country into debt crisis. Confirming an earlier report in the NZ...

Switzerland will lift coronavirus-imposed restrictions at its borders with all European Union and EFTA countries – and the United Kingdom – from June 15. The announcement, made on Friday, follows a previous decision that borders with ...

A former Russia specialist with the federal police, accused of accepting benefits during a bear hunting trip to Russia, has had his appeal rejected. The appeals chamber of the Swiss Federal Criminal Court on Friday confirmed the original ...

Authors have withdrawn an influential article finding that hydroxychloroquine had no benefit against Covid-19, citing data concerns. The article, published in the Lancet on May 22, was by Harvard Medical School, the University of Utah and S...

Three Swiss television journalists say that they were shot at with rubber bullets by police during a demonstration in the United States city of Minneapolis last weekend. Nobody was hurt. The incident is one of many reported press freedom violations...

Switzerland has been praised for its part in the freeing of United States citizen Michael White from Iran on Thursday. White has now arrived back in the US. White was arrested in 2018 and spent the last few weeks of his detention in the Swiss embass...

A group of 11 NGOs has called on Swiss banks and government ministries to consider offering relief on billions in debt owed by developing nations. The consortium says that the coronavirus pandemic has increased economic pressure on the poorest countr...

A Swiss court has blocked the extradition to Germany of an alleged regional leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), ruling that German authorities had not made enough of a case against the man, who belongs to a group that is not banned in Switze...

A further CHF14.9 billion ($15.5 billion) has been agreed by parliament to cope with the coronavirus pandemic. Most of it will go towards unemployment insurance, which finances short-time work compensation. With the new credit package approved in ...

The Swiss parliament has adopted a proposal to make civilian service more difficult, especially for soldiers who have already completed part of their compulsory military service. The House of Representatives on Thursday followed the Senate in agreei...

The World Economic Forum (WEF) annual conference in Davos will take place in January with fewer physical participants – but with a new “virtual” connection to more than 400 cities around the world. The introduction of a “powerful virtual hub...

The government has abolished fines of CHF100 ($104) for not keeping a distance of two metres, introduced on March 20 in an attempt to minimise the spread of Covid-19. The Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) still recommends that the distance of...

Switzerland assumed on Wednesday the presidency of the Hague Code of Conduct, an international mechanism established in 2002 to control the spread of weapons of mass destruction. The non-binding agreement, formally known as The International Code of...

Parliament has launched discussions a proposal to allow same-sex marriage bringing Switzerland in line with many other western European countries. The House of Representatives on Wednesday agreed in principle to full marriage equality for homosexual...

The Swiss parliament has ruled out the use of video surveillance in slaughterhouses. A motion to monitor the stunning and killing of animals was clearly rejected by the Senate. Wednesday’s decision came in response to accusations of animal rights ...

Switzerland has pledged $12 million (CHF11.5 million) for the victims of the long-running civil war in Yemen and is also boosting support for Palestinians. The money for Yemen is to be used for the activities of the Swiss Development Agency, the Int...

The Swiss authorities say it’s still too early to lift entry restrictions with Italy on June 3, the date on which its southern neighbour will open its borders. The Federal Council (executive body) said in a statement on June 2 that it plans to mai...

One year after a massive women’s strike in Switzerland, an alliance of women’s groups has reaffirmed the need for equal treatment and conditions, and urgent action on issues like childcare during the coronavirus crisis. Some 50 women’s organ...

The World Economic Forum has vowed to hold its annual meeting in Davos in January, testing the willingness of a globetrotting elite to resume the high-powered networking that has been frozen by the coronavirus pandemic. Such events have been cancell...

Up to one-third of Swiss people say they will probably shun public transport in favour of individual means like cars, bikes, or motorbikes after the Covid-19 crisis. According to the survey carried out by the auditing group Deloitte Switzerland, suc...

People visited beauty spots in Switzerland in large numbers over the long Whitsun weekend as lockdown measures were further eased. Various roads were closed due to heavy traffic. After the coronavirus measures were further eased on May 30 – allo...

Hundreds of people in Switzerland’s biggest city have protested against the death of an African-American man in police custody in the United States. The demonstration in Zurich on Monday came despite a ban on major public rallies and follows a wav...

The restrictive measures taken by the Swiss authorities have had a positive impact on stemming the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic according to a scientific study. The survey, carried out by the Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, found th...

Almost three quarters of new doctors in Switzerland in 2019 had studied abroad, the NZZ am Sonntag newspaper has revealed. The figures show how much the Swiss health system relies on foreign doctors, the report says. Around 4,000 people received the...

The United Nations has written to the Swiss government over the country’s proposed anti-terrorism legislation, saying it opened the door to the arbitrary deprivation of liberty. On Sunday, the Swiss justice ministry told the Keystone-SDA news agen...

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has criticised in a newspaper interview the Swiss Attorney General’s Office (OAG) for having ‘too close contact’ with the Russian Prosecutor General’s office. In comments made to Sunday’s SonntagsZe...

Around 40% of Covid-19 patients admitted to intensive care in Switzerland were under 60 years old, according to the Swiss Society of Intensive Care Medicine (SSICM). The figures, revealed by Swiss public television SRF on Saturday evening, show that...

Researchers have used a mathematical model to calculate a possible second wave of the coronavirus pandemic in Switzerland. Their conclusion: the wave would develop more slowly than the first, but could see up to 5,000 extra deaths. Should a second w...

Apprentices are to be better protected from losing their jobs during the coronavirus crisis, Economics Minister Guy Parmelin has announced. Around two-thirds of young people take the vocational route in Switzerland and spring/summer is a critical ti...

A young child has died from the possible consequences of a coronavirus infection, in the first case of its kind in Switzerland, the authorities have announced. Investigations into the case are ongoing. The news was confirmed by Stefan Kuster, head...

Roger Federer is world's highest-paid athlete in 2020, after the Covid-19 pandemic cut paydays for other top earners, according to the annual Forbes list. It the first time he has topped the list. The Swiss tennis star, who has a men's record 20 Gr...

A well-preserved Roman bath has been uncovered during building work in the Swiss city of Baden. Archaeologists say it’s a key part of the city’s bathing history, which could go back uninterrupted for 2,000 years. Baden, which is around 25 kilome...

Zurich and St Gallen - the last two German-speaking cantons operating split primary school classes as part of their post-coronavirus lockdown plans - have confirmed they are to go back to a full timetable by June 8. This leaves Canton Tici...

The hackers who stole data from Swiss train manufacturer Stadler Rail in early May have demanded payment of a ransom of $6 million (CHF 5.8 million) in Bitcoin. "Stadler is not and has never been willing to make payments to blackmailers and has no...

The Swiss Football League will resume from June 19 with matches taking place behind closed doors. On Friday, the 20 clubs of the Swiss Football League (SFL), which comprises the top-division Super League and the second-division Challenge League, ...

Clubbers can apply for a digital Swiss Night Pass that will help nightclubs and bars meet the government’s requirement to register attendance for contact tracing purposes. The recently created platform “Save the Night” is launching a secure...

Authorities have released the source code of the SwissCovid app to the public to allow experts and hackers to detect any risks to privacy before the official launch. The source code of the decentralised contact tracing app DP-3T, developed by the...